Former two weight titlist Carl Frampton makes a much anticipated homecoming this weekend in Belfast when he meets Horacio Garcia. It isn’t a great matchup, but Frampton is coming off a loss and the atmosphere should be excellent. There are also two world title fights on the undercard, one of which should be fun at least.
Carl Frampton (23-1, 14 KOs) has been a fighter on top of the sport for a few years now. He won his first super bantamweight title in 2014 from Kiko Martinez and defended it a few times before unifying the belt with Scott Quigg’s in 2016. That wasn’t a super satisfying performance, but Frampton got the win and it set up a big featherweight debut against Leo Santa Cruz.
Frampton again got the win against the previously unbeaten Santa Cruz with an excellent performance in the summer of 2016, but he lost the rematch in January and hasn’t been able to secure the trilogy fight. This fight is also the second tune up he has had scheduled this year as Frampton was set to meet Andres Gutierrez in July, but a freak accident canceled that fight at the last minute when Gutierrez slipped in the shower.
Something that is forgotten thanks to the last minute cancellation of that fight is that Carl Frampton had actually missed weight for it. How he handles the featherweight limit here is definitely a subplot worth watching. It probably would have meant a little more against Gutierrez, however, given that Andres Gutierrez is a significantly better fighter than Horacio Garcia (33-3-1, 24 KOs).
This is a mismatch, but it is a somewhat understandable one. Frampton needs to regain some confidence following his first loss and shake the rust off from this extended lay off. He has been a fighter who has actively sought out difficult competition in the past and there is no reason to believe he won’t do this same with his new promotional partnership with Frank Warren. Almost everyone comes back soft after a first loss.
Two world title fights make up the bulk of the undercard here. Zolani Tete (25-3, 20 KOs) and Jerwin Ancajas (27-1-1, 18 KOs) will defend their WBO bantamweight and IBF super flyweight titles respectively against Siboniso Gonya (11-1, 5 KOs) and Jamie Conlan (19-0, 11 KOs). Tete’s defense is maybe a mismatch even worse than the main event, but Ancajas versus Conlan isn’t bad. I do suspect it will become one sided as Ancajas is an underrated fighter and Conlan is a bit of a limiter brawler, but we can’t rule out Jamie Conlan success in the same way as we can for the other two b-sides.
Whether you really need to watch this one depends how into the sport you are. I don’t think we will get a competitive fight in the triple header, but all three main fighters definitely worth your time in general. BT Sport and Box Nation will share broadcast duties in the UK. There is no legal US broadcast and unlikely to be one, but I will just point out that the year is 2017 and leave it to that.
